This invention relates to a portable, safety, play furniture assembly, or chair, and, more particularly, to such a chair having a closed, inwardly curved wall forming a chair body for underlying support of a person reposed therein.
Various types of play structures or devices are known which include a cylindrical body within which children may crawl, scramble or otherwise interactively play. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,522, issued May 1, 1973 to Paczkowski, a child's amusement toy is shown with a rocking base, a hollow center and circular holes or tunnels through which a child can crawl into and out of the center. An A-shaped playground climber is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,965, issued Jan. 25, 1983, to Ahrens to which cylindrical tubes, as well as a slide and climbing stairs, are attached. A brochure of Playscape Incorporated, dated Dec. 11, 1968, discloses a segmented outdoor tube with openings for walking and playing in, and in the Jun. 1983 issue of Popular Science at page 104 a swingset with playhouse is shown with an elongate cylindrical tunnel mounted on a hill. In both Sweets Architect Catalog, Section 2.15/mi, 1977 file, and in Miracle Recreation Equipment Catalog 773, copyright 1972, page 51, rotatable cylindrical bodies are shown within which a child may walk.
Other cylindrical or other tubular slides, tunnels and clamber toys in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,170,935 issued Aug. 29, 1939 to Whiteley; 2,465,187 issued Mar. 22, 1949 to Barrabee; 3,928,701 issued Dec. 23, 1975 to Roehner; 3,497,024 issued Mar. 30, 1976 to Slater; 3,949,985 issued Apr. 13, 1976 to Stampfli; 4,379,551 issued Apr. 12, 1983 to Ahrens; Des. 244,556 issued May 31, 1977 to Burgess et al.; Des. 269,104 issued May 24, 1983 to Brown; Des. 291,717 issued Sept. 1, 1987 to Brooks; and German Patent No. 566,161 dated Sept. 15, 1975.
While these various playground toys appear to be useful for play, they generally lack the combined qualities of safety, portability, and small size needed for indoor use as a toy or as a child's chair.
It has been discovered through observation of children, particularly those in age group 3-6, that they particularly enjoy sitting within relatively narrow arcuate, concave, closed structures which are sufficiently small that they can lie on their backs and slide around a smooth concave interior surface by pushing against the interior surface with their feet or by "walking" with their knees in a raised position to pull themselves along the cylindrical surface. In this way, they can both easily shift the position of their torso from horizontal to upright to head over heels through unorthodox methods of sliding which they enjoy. At the same time, it is observed that they enjoy reposing within a partially enclosed surface with respect to surfaces immediately in front and above them but which are not so enclosed as to block light or peripheral vision on all sides.
The known structures discussed above fail to provide these capabilities. Many are too rough for sliding while others rotate to defeat sliding movement. Others of the known structures are elevated off the ground and they create a risk of injury, while still others present safety problems due to possible tipping or due to crevices into which a child's limb or neck can become wedged.
Accordingly, in parent U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/328,088, filed Mar. 23, 1989, an improved portable, safety, play furniture assembly is disclosed and claimed which overcomes these disadvantages. Reference should be made to the specification, drawings and claims of this parent application for the details of this basic invention which is hereby incorporated herein.
Since the filing of that parent application, an improved thin wall design has been developed which facilitates manufacturing of same by means of rotational molding with a minimum of plastic material (polyethylene, polyvinyl or the like) for minimum costs of manufacturing and maximum portability while still providing the strength, rigidity and stability needed for safety. Other important features have been added.
It is important from a safety viewpoint to reduce tipping in a sideways direction and for this purpose a foot has been provided with an element extending laterally of the chair body. A potential difficulty with this foot was that its height made it unsuitable as a foot rest and because it extended laterally of the entire chair body; further its height created an obstacle over which a person walking by the side of the furniture assembly could trip, since it extended laterally of the entire chair body in addition to extending laterally of the entire body of the assembly.
The prior design also required a thick wall or double thin wall, construction to achieve the rigidity on the top, overlying part of the chair body to prevent its collapse from weight placed on the top or when the top edge is grabbed by a person when lowering himself into the chair. This thickness required excessive quantities of material adding to the weight and reducing the stability of the furniture assembly as well as creating an edge which had no vertical element to enhance its function as a hand grip.